It’s Time to Celebrate: How Can Restaurateurs Make Special Occasions Even Better?

Abstract

In the highly competitive food service industry, restaurateurs are continuously exploring ways to deliver customer value and increase consumers' dining intentions during special occasions. Prior research has examined rational qualities, such as price, food quality, and service quality, but as more restaurateurs strategically capitalize on the significance of these factors, previously held competitive advantages are beginning to fade, calling for further investigation to uncover new factors and contemporary restaurant marketing strategies. This study attempts to fill the gap by examining constructs from a psychological perspective. In particular, this study investigates the influences of culture, value, self-enhancement, gratification, and subjective norms on consumers' attitudes and restaurant dining intentions during special occasions. The results show that culture, value, self-enhancement, and gratification are positively related to attitude whereas attitude and subjective norms have positive effects on intention. The implications for theory and practice are discussed, limitations are acknowledged, and research directions are presented.

Ready to Embrace Genetically Modified Wines? The Role of Knowledge Exposure and Intrinsic Wine Attributes

“…As per the means-end approach, the product is conceptualized as a means through which a desired end is achieved by the consumer. This theory, which incorporates a consumer’s perception of the product’s attributes, based on his or her personal values, leads to functional and then social and psychological consequences of the product’s use (Fotopoulos, Krystallis, & Ness, 2003; Lim, 2015;Rahman et al, 2014). Thus, by disseminating GM wine–related knowledge to consumers, it is possible to influence their beliefs and judgments regarding such wines, which will lead them to alter their perceptions about the wine attributes and consequently purchase intentions.…”